# Audit trail

> See the change history of a device, profile, rule, user or any other record. Who changed it, when, which field, and the old and new value.

Source: https://proxus.io/docs/administer/audit-trail

At the end of this guide, you know who changed a record, when, and what it looked like before. Proxus writes every
change to a saved record into its audit trail: a new device, a changed tag address, a deleted rule, a role that got a
new permission.

## Before you start

- The record you want to check, for example a device profile.
- Administrators see every change. Users with the **Default** role see only the changes they made themselves. For
  other roles, the role needs read access to the audit records.

## Open the change history of a record

1. Open the record, for example **Connect > Device Profiles** and then the profile `Dough mixer`.
2. Select **Audit Trail** in the toolbar.

*Screenshot: The Audit Trail window of the device profile Dough mixer, with the newest changes first: time, user, operation, property and old and new values*

The window lists every change, newest first:

| Column | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| **Time** | When the change was saved. |
| **User** | Who saved it. |
| **Operation** | What happened: an object was created, a field was changed, an item was added to or removed from a list, an object was deleted. |
| **Field** | The field that changed. Shown by its caption on screen; no value shows as a dash, a boolean as **Yes** or **No**. |
| **Old Value** and **New Value** | The value before and after. |

Use **Text to search...** to find a field or a value, and the filter icons in the column headers to show one user or
one kind of change. The window is read-only. Select **Close** to leave it.

## Where a change came from

With each change, Proxus also records where it came from:

- a browser session, with a short session ID, the IP address and the browser and system, for example
  `Browser session 3f2a9c1b · 10.20.0.31 · Chrome on Windows`;
- the REST API (`Web API`), with the IP address. Changes made by AI agents through the
  [MCP server](https://proxus.io/docs/develop/mcp) arrive this way;
- `Background task` for changes Proxus makes by itself.

> **Note:**
Since 2.0.0, the **Audit Trail** window shows this in its **Source** column. Changes recorded before 2.0.0 have
no source. If you saved a column layout for this window earlier, tick **Source** once in the Column Chooser.

## How long changes are kept

Audit records are kept until you delete them; there is no setting that removes old ones. They are stored in the
configuration database, so they are part of every [database backup](https://proxus.io/docs/operate/backup-and-restore).

## What's next

- [Users and roles](https://proxus.io/docs/administer/users-and-roles)
- [System logs](https://proxus.io/docs/administer/system-logs)